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John Kelly (devthack) has been blogging on the IBM Rational community blog about Rational Integration Tester (RIT) for quite a while now. Here's a roll up of all his relevant posts on the topic to help you learn more about RIT and see examples to help you build your own test suites:

Rational Integration Tester - First steps: This is a step-by-step introduction to Rational® Integration Tester (RIT) for new users. It avoids, as far as possible, reference to use of a particular technology so the basic functionality of the product is seen more clearly. For more in-depth information on the product, see my reading list.

Rational® Integration Tester (RIT) supports testing of various domains and technologies and you'll find most blogs cover testing one or more of these technologies with RIT. This series of blog entries is ignoring all of that. By focusing on a very simple one-line test it hopes to help the reader understand some of the basic building blocks of the product set.

Rational Integration Tester example - Creating a test from WSDL: This video shows how to create a simple test of a web service from a WSDL definition using Rational Integration Tester (RIT). The "echo" web service used in the example is one of several that are built-in to IBM's Rational Test Virtualization Server (RTVS). RIT is part of IBM's Rational Test Workbench (RTW).

Rational Integration Tester - Reading List: Over the last few weeks, while starting to blog about Rational Integration Tester (RIT), I've come across a few gems and so thought I'd make myself a reading list and share it with you here.

Make an App for that with Bluemix- Are the needs for new business apps outstripping your enterprise's ability to deliver? Is the business asking for: simple mobile apps based upon existing systems? Situational apps for their department? Simple B2B apps to streamline collaboration and information sharing with customers, suppliers, or partners?

Learn about IBM's new cloud solution for Business Developer apps. This solution makes it easy for non-developers to easily deliver web and mobile business apps, while making use of existing IT assets, and also providing IT with the visibility and control they need to manage a self-service app platform for the business.

We Love Feedback!- This video demonstrates how you can help improve IBM Support content by leaving feedback. Access IBM Support content through the IBM Support Portal at:http://ibm.co/SupportPortalfromYT

I suspect I could get DOORS Web Access (DWA) installed and running on Windows in 5 minutes. But I hear grumbling about it so I am sharing and timing a DWA 9.6.0.1 install in a rush. I’m usually in a rush.

If necessary, install the DOORS client. The DOORS client must be the exact same version as DWA. If there is already a client installed of a different version, uninstall it. I do this uninstall while the download is going on. If it is already installed and the same exact version as your DWA, skip this.

Start the DOORS client - make sure it works and connects to your database

Establish the database ID - run Tools - Edit DXL - print databaseID

Save that value (5304e5790e4b2eef for me)

Run the dbinfo commands. I never copy them from webpages that may include tab and quotes that break it. I make sure I see a “–I- DBADMIN” for every parameter I set, i.e. I need to see 6 of these. If I’m just upgrading, I skip this step as they are already set in my database. But if I am not upgrading and I need to set them, I refer to the help for the syntax Configuring the Rational DOORS database server

Stop the DOORS client

Restart the DOORS database server

Install DWA (I usually do this in parallel to the above)

Edit <DWA Install>/server/festival/config/festival.xml

Replace REPLACE_THIS_WITH_YOUR_REPOSITORY_ID with the database ID we found using DXL

Insert location of the license server

Edit dwa.start.bat

Put in the DOORS_PATH and DWA_PATH and if the database is not on the same machine or default port, edit DOORS_HOST.

Run dwa.start.bat as Administrator and take this opportunity to practice patience (i.e. throw paper airplanes at Fiachra)

It is important to wait for it to start, as the first time you start it, it is uncompressing the .war files and putting them in different places - this can take minutes. If you interrupt it, you get partly deployed war files which will cause problems later.

When in the Tomcat window you see the message 'INFO: Server startup in xx ms', it should be done

Open a web browser and go to https://<hostname>:8443/dwa and login. The first very login tends to be a bit slow to load the login page. And as we have used self-signed certificates, the browser will ask if you want to proceed.

[Stop the stopwatch]

24min 11sec. This included downloading and first draft of this blog. So 5 minutes is not in fact possible for me, I stand corrected. Downloading and starting are the slowest parts.

Avoid problems by having the DOORS client and DWA at the same version level and make sure that the client can start and that you don’t interrupt the tomcat start. If the database server is on the same machine, it is usually best to also upgrade it in order to avoid any DLL compatibility issues.

There are three new videos from Rational Support that have been published to IBM Education Assistant and YouTube. Below is a list of helpful videos for Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) and Rational Licensing.

WHAT COMPELS AN IBM PARTNER TO PUT SUCH A MAGNITUDE OF TRUST IN IBM RATIONAL AVP?

IBM has very complex relationships with many of the world’s largest companies. We’re competitors, joint venture partners, OEM buddies and collaborators. We each fiercely guard any competitive edge and use it to relentlessly hammer each other. All is fair in love, war and the technology business.

One of IBM’s largest competitors is also one of IBM's most important business partners for software and systems. This Consulting Firm’s goal is to standardize how they approach software delivery for their clients. They consider Rational to be a good technology fit in this area, so they have made the Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution and other Rational products the critical foundation of their software delivery process. This is a clear endorsement of IBM Rational products and strategy by one of the world’s leading companies.

Since 2007, this Consulting Firm has also invested in a successfully evolving partnership with the experienced Rational Accelerated Value Program (AVP) team. AVP is Predictive, Preemptive and Proactive - bringing fast ROI for Rational Software clients across the globe. Consulting Firm relies on their AVP team for advice on their overall software deployment strategy, guidance on successful roll out of Rational tools, and the management of expedited resolution for cost-inducing software issues. The client considers the AVP team to be a high value extension of their own teams and have granted access to several of their internal systems and environments to make collaboration and troubleshooting easier- showing ultimate trust with IBM AVP.

The flexibility and personalization of the Accelerated Value Program has meant that the service continuously adapts to align with Consulting Firm's needs, so it is no surprise that the by the end of their current contract they will have been a AVP client for a full decade! AVP’s comprehensive knowledge of their customer’s business goals, ecosystem and topology helps ensure that the team is well positioned to dynamically respond to changing business conditions, partnering for continued success.

EXAMPLES OF HOW CONSULTING FIRM’S BUSINESS WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPACTED WITHOUT THE GUIDANCE OF THE EXPERIENCED RATIONAL ACCELERATED VALUE PROGRAM TEAM

1. IBM’s CLM Development identified a serious security vulnerability (not Heartbleed, but having significant threat potential due to Consulting Firm’s large customer base) allowing a remote user to execute arbitrary code on a CLM server without authenticating. With AVP’s intimate knowledge of Consulting Firm's CLM deployment model, we immediately realized the devastating impact this vulnerability could have if exploited on any of Consulting Firm's 1000+ CLM deployments. Working with IBM Level 3 support and IBM Legal, the AVP team were authorized to notify Consulting Firm of this vulnerability more than a week before it was to be published. This gave Consulting Firm enough time to remediate all of their servers prior to the vulnerability becoming public.

2. Working with IBM Level 2 support and IBM Development, the AVP team arranged for the delivery of more than 20 hotfixes for Consulting Firm's CLM deployments in 2013. Without these hotfixes Consulting Firm would have had to upgrade all 1000+ of their CLM deployments to each quarterly release. Avoiding 5 additional upgrades saved Consulting Firm $3.08 million (1000 deployments X 8 hours per upgrade X 5 upgrades X $77/hr FTE cost).

OVER THE PAST YEAR, THE AVP TEAM HAS COLLABORATED ON SEVERAL WINS WITH CONSULTING FIRM’S STAKEHOLDERS. READ JUST SOME OF THE IMPRESSIVE AVP ACHIEVEMENTS BELOW:

Guiding more than 1,000 successful deployments of the CLM applications for Consulting Firm's clients, including many brands that are household names

Facilitating rapid resolution to production issues in order to keep Consulting Firm's 40,000+licensed Rational users productive. AVP drove resolution of over 100 Consulting Firm PMRs in 2013 facilitating the correct focus from support delivery and development.

By managing Consulting Firm's enhancement requests and explaining the business case to IBM Development and Product Management, AVP helped with the delivery of 5 of Consulting Firm's most important and strategic requests in CLM releases in 2013.

Defining product upgrade and roll out plans with the client enables Consulting Firm to annually upgrade each of the 20 Rational products covered under AVP. Meticulous AVP planning, guidance, and environment preparation are critical for driving successful projects where risk is heightened.

WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THE CONSULTING FIRM’S AVP PARTNERSHIP IN THE FUTURE?Looking ahead, because there has been significant growth in Consulting Firm's' Rational portfolio, AVP has already advised and set a schedule to sunset support of older Rational tools over the duration of the contract. This will assist Consulting Firm in making the most of its investment in Rational tools, not only by having the latest technologies and functionality, but also by following the trusted advice on how to best use those tools to meet every business goal efficiently.

How BlueMix Works- This video shows how the IBM BlueMix service works to help you build apps and solve problems! This video was originally broadcast during an IBM employee Think Friday cloud innovation day.